Di Canio 'One Of The Toughest Derbies In The World!'

12 April 2013 02:35

Paolo di Canio cannot wait to experience "one of the toughest" derbies in world football.

Paolo di Canio: "I can't wait, I can't wait.

"We live for it.

"We live to win cups or we live to qualify for the Europa League, to play in the Champions League, we live to play at the top level.

"But you know here, the result can change the mood for the derby next year because there is a joke between the fans. They work together at the office.

"I know what is going on - in Rome it is similar, even if here it is more tough because we are talking about two different cities very close.

"This one is very, very tough. We know for what reason - Celtic v Rangers, there is a fire in this derby for not only sports reasons, we all know this.

"But this one is one of the toughest, in my opinion, in the world and I am more than happy to have this chance.

"We know what happened last year. It wasn't a very friendly game. We have to make sure, even if I can't wait - already it is easy to imagine that the players are going to give everything - but we have to show our character, we have to drive our energy in a positive way.

"We know sometimes, some players can lose their temper maybe because they want to show the fans they can be proud of them, and they can do something that puts the team in trouble.

"I will try to persuade them to use their energy to score a goal and to defend well to beat them and maybe celebrate the victory.

"We know [the suspended] Craig [Gardner] is out, unfortunately, because he is a real warrior, but we have other players that we have to make sure they are okay and they use their energy in the right way.

"The organisation, the desire, the ambition can help.

"Obviously with Fletcher out, the top scorer in this team, and Graham just arrived only in January - we know he has got pedigree, he has scored at any level - we don't have a top scorer in the box.

"But against Chelsea on Sunday we arrived in the box with four or five players, and that's what I want to see from my team."